The One Where Harima Gets Esper Powers
by Don Piano
Summary: Harima Makes Tea, Yakumo Gets Her Chance, Akira Gets Wierder, Eri Gets A Chance Of Her Own And Tenma Stays The Same...Despicable.
1. And Now The Story Of A Delinquent

It's too bad this section doesn't have more attention for such a great series, hopefully it'll grow. AU, but I like it better this way :P Kudos to whoever can tell what show I've been watching lately.

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And now the story of a group of high school students that had everything, and the one delinquent that couldn't keep it together. It's School Rumble.

It was a Thursday night, and Yakumo and Harima were working hard to finish Harima's manga before the upcoming deadline.

_Scribble scribble scribble._

Tsukamoto Yakumo's hand hurt. She had felt herself get used to the ridiculous amount of inking she had been doing, but the truth was that her hand didn't hurt because of the work.

_Scribble scribble scribble._

The lights had come back on after a few minutes, but those few minutes reminded her of a time similar to the one she was currently experiencing. Thunder storm outside, Harima and herself drawing manga inside.

_Scribble scribble scribble._

Except this time her hand burned. Burned wasn't exactly the correct way to express it, but it was suitable enough. Was the word desire? Too perverse and Yakumo didn't really handle "adult relationships" well. Was that the truth? She had thought back on the time Sempai had asked her to stay the night and the other time they practiced pushing a girl down. Those things, despite seemingly being harmless enough at the time, were actually rather questionable. But somehow, to Yakumo, they were regular memories.

_Scribble scribble scribble._

She found herself thinking a lot around Harima. Usually, the thoughts of others clouded her mind, whether her sister's caring thoughts or the zealous and sometimes nightmarishly perverted thoughts of the boys at school, but when she was with Harima-sempai...sensei? She didn't know which one to call him. There was even that secret corner of her mind that lobbied for him to be her Harima...

_Scribble scribble scribble._

When she was with Harima, everything was deathly silent. The kind of silence cold winter hands out. A beautiful kind of peaceful serenity with no equal or superior for relaxation. But she couldn't relax. This was because without her power, everything was...normal? She thought more about it. Without hearing his thoughts, everything he said became the truth and the intentions in place of hearing his thoughts. That was the truth, but was he honest?

_Scribble scribble scribble._

Yakumo had always thought that Harima was just the type of guy who was easily misunderstood by some people. He was a good person, he'd proven it, if only in Yakumo's mind. But what if it was all an act and he really did want to be with Yakumo? That was an impossible truth because if he felt that way about her, she would be able to read his mind. This left the reality of it staining Yakumo's mind. Harima did not...

_Scribble scribble scribble._

Yakumo stopped that thought, for it was not pleasant. It took the beautiful and serene winter scene and embellished the cold barren part, the tragic irony that was Yakumo's world. She found herself staring at Harima and not inking the lines with her pen. Harima belonged to her sister, even without Tenma's knowledge.

"Imouta-san?" Harima asked after a minute or two. Yakumo shook her head out and quickly tried to formulate an excuse for staring. "You feeling alright?"

"Um, sensei..." she started weakly, he was looking at her as far as she could tell, but he wasn't looking at her the way she secretly wanted him to. "Why do you love my sister?"

_Scribble scribble halt._

The question even surprised herself. She would have found that he had no answer to give her, but the storm outside had once again knocked out the power. Harima and Yakumo sat in the dark for several minutes, Yakumo feeling regret for being too forward, Harima perplexed as to how to answer, before they hastily made mumbled excuses to get up.

_Rise. Rise. Bonk!_

Perhaps too hastily as they collided heads solidily, forcing each of them out of consciousness. They fell unceremoniously to the floor, Yakumo below, Harima on top, where they would remain until later found by a buzzed Itoko, and subjected to many questions.

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Just a prologue. 


	2. Yakumo's Thoughts & Akira's Thoughts!

This one didn't come out easy, but I gave it my best shot.

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Seventeen minutes later, Harima had made a startling discovery.

'Ah! I can hear Imouta-san's thoughts?!' This discovery had come after several queries as to why he was thinking in third person. Those thoughts had gone something like this:

-I forgot what Harima-san's eyes look like…-  
'I know what my own eyes look like!'

In fact, at that moment, Harima had forgotten what his own eyes look like, as he hadn't taken off the sunglasses in a rather long time.

Fetching a nearby hand mirror of his cousin's that had somehow found its way into his room, Harima removed his sunglasses and looked at himself in the mirror.

"Gah!" His body physically recoiled at what he saw, as he was reminded himself why he always wore sunglasses. He was definitely the type to be misunderstood as a pervert. However, his realization was drowned out by the sound of yet another thought.

-Ugh….handsome…-

Harima looked over at Yakumo only to witness her struggling. Hand over her mouth, a deep blush streaked across her face.

"Ah, Imouta-san? Do you have a headache or something? Maybe a fever? You're not getting a cold are you? I can turn up the heat. I can't have my assistant getting sick..."

Harima had shuffled over to her and was checking her forehead, unbeknownst he was not only the source of her distress, but the cause of its increase. Yakumo nearly died from holding her breath, but instead fell over, to be caught by Harima. Red crayons could not compare.

"It's not good to overwork yourself; this is our third night without sleep after all. Here you can take a break." Harima had picked her up after catching her and was now carrying her towards his bed.

-Ah, it's too sudden!-

This thought, as Harima was starting to connect the sound of voice in his head to Yakumo, caused Harima to panic and unceremoniously drop her onto his bed.

"I'm sorry!" Harima apologized quickly as he threw the covers over her and in a flash he was back to sitting at the table, drawing away.

'I never knew Imouta-san thought like that.' Harima thought to himself. And that is when, realizing his new found ability, Harima turned to stone.

Which leads us to where we began; Harima, drawing manga in his room, his guardian passed out on a Thursday night, and a beautiful young girl who had her secret thoughts exposed to the last person she wanted them to be exposed to.

Harima tried to keep calm as he thought the situation out. He would have never dreamed that Yakumo felt the way she did. He considered all the misunderstandings that had people thinking that they were together and how hard he had worked to sort them out, but what about her? She never really complained. Harima felt a pang of regret for not considering the feelings of others. However, it had been necessary to sort those things out in order to get closer to Tenma…

Harima heard rustling behind him, and turned to see that Yakumo was getting out of bed.

-Harima-san is looking at me…-

"I'll go make tea!" Harima announced loudly to avoid any awkward situation, him now knowing the truth.

-Harima is acting weird…-

Harima, stopped dead in his tracks, and made his second attempt to act natural as to not hurt Yakumo's feelings.

"Actually, Imouta-san, I'm feeling kind of hungry. If you feel better, would you mind making something delicious again?" While his words were chosen generously, his tone was as rough as ever.

"Yes, okay…" Yakumo replied quietly. But her thoughts were exploding with joy.

Harima led her out of the room, nodding constantly, before shutting the door behind her, and collapsing in a sigh of relief.

The night went on in a similar fashion Harima trying his best to praise Yakumo or make her feel happy, while still trying to act as naturally as possible. He did not want to hurt her, but he could not say he felt the way she felt, her thoughts for the rest of the night consolidating his conclusions.

The next morning, the two of them were getting ready to leave for school, Itoko having miraculously got herself up in the early morning without trouble, and had already left.

On the way to school on the motorcycle Harima always rode, he decided to tell her the situation he was in, apologize for listening to her thoughts, and hope she understood as the problem had dug at him all day.

"I see…" was Yakumo's only response, save for a slight blush. "So then you know how…"

Her question was interrupted by a loud semi-truck passing by, and she never tried to repeat it, because she knew the answer. Harima had told her that it all started happening when he woke up after hitting heads, so Yakumo considered the possibility it was her power he inherited. She forgot, however, that Harima could hear what she was thinking, and for the first time ever, her secret was out.

Though this, Harima figured out how the power worked, and agreed with her conclusion without either of them exchanging a word over it.

When they arrived at school, Harima found a suitable parking spot, and they prepared a tarp over the bike, in case it rained again.

"So you had this power all along?" Harima asked, making conversation. "It must be hard."

"Yes…" Yakumo found no reason to lie since things had gone this far.

"Could you hear my thoughts?" Harima continued his questions, trying to gauge what he had gotten himself into.

"Um, no, because I can only hear the thoughts of people that like me…" Yakumo felt she didn't really want to talk about it anymore.

"But I do like Imouta-san." Harima said, trying at a smile and putting his hand on her head. "We don't need to work as hard tonight because we're almost done, so how about after we go do something?"

Yakumo nodded quietly as she looked at the ground, but secretly, to only Harima and her, this was one of the best moments of her life. She had never found it so easy to ignore all those classmates of hers that asked if they were going out. The fact that she didn't have her powers, something she didn't notice till lunch time, had nothing to do with it.

Harima on the other hand, had his own problems. After reaching the third floor, he was almost to the classroom when he ran into Takano Akira.

"Good morning." She said coolly.

"Good morning." Harima returned nonchalantly. But there was more to their exchange, even though they only really stood there.

-I wonder how much money famous manga artists make…- This thought was tied with the slightest checking-out on Akira's part, practically unnoticeable to the naked eye.

And Harima could not contain himself at this thought.

"How did you know about my manga?!" he exploded at her.

The brief silence between them was filled with Akira's thoughts, which left Harima utterly perplexed.

-Hmm, he seems to have developed mind reading powers. I better move to phase one mental defense.-

Her thoughts then strung out in a language that Harima didn't recognize, which turned out to be latin. However, on hearing his name a few times regardless, Harima tried to explain.

"Umm Takano-san…"

-He is a formidable foe, as to be expected. Phase two then.-

Harima gave up when an endless stream of numbers and equations he couldn't hope to understand erupted into his mind in Akira's voice.

"I'm just going to go." Harima said as he left her standing there, numbers flowing, and went into the classroom.

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Whew, there, thanks for reading! 


	3. That's The Story Anyways

Sorry for the long time in between, I've been working on this one and an old fic of mine that people have been coax me to work on. The one in between kinda gets left out, but they'll all be done eventually. Without further A or do:

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Harima's troubles did not stop in the hall, but persisted on the second he entered the classroom. He had actually heard the voice in advance, while he stood in the hall, but his encounter with Akira had distracted him. The voice of the person was easy enough to place and therein lied the issue.

The mysterious voice was tailored to none other than Sawachika Eri, who was currently sitting at her desk, talking with Tenma and Suo. Eri was tracking his movement intently past the corner of her eye forcing Harima to act as naturally as possible as he headed toward his desk. Internally however, Harima was panicking as his world was being turned upside down and starting to make sense simultaneous.

-Stupid Hige…why does he always ignore me when coming in to the classroom? Can't we chat naturally once in a while?-

Harima leaned back in his chair, forcing out the image that he was relaxed, but a light bulb had just popped into his head.

'Ah! It's the final test so soon! If I can hear Tenma's thoughts, then it's a sure thing!'

Getting ahead of himself, Harima began looking eager for Tenma Tsukamoto entrance. Eri, however, who sat inconveniently close to the door, took this as whatever kind of sign she was waiting for.

-Maybe this is my chance!- she thought hopefully before waving her friends away and heading over to Harima's desk. She was, however, unfortunate enough to walk directly into the line of Harima's immense focus, and began feeling quite nervous, despite nothing apparent happening.

-Is he still staring at me? Why does he have to make this so hard?-

But Harima still hadn't noticed as he was still putting all his energy into focusing on the door. This changed when Eri tapped him on the shoulder, catching his attention, her thoughts again flooding into his head and causing him to jump right out of his seats.

'Stupid Princess! Why does she always do this?! She'll ruin everything!' But Harima finally had an answer to a rhetoric question he had had for a while. Ceasing his focus on the door, he turned toward Eri, and greeted her.

"Yes?" Harima said in a tone he felt was too soft, but couldn't take back now. Ignoring her panicked jump in response and her flow of embarrassed thoughts, he waited for an answer.

"Say, I was wondering if…" she trailed off, her usual air of superiority dispersing and her confidence dwindling in the face of adversity. Looking back at her friends for assistance she only got a few hand gestures to "go on", causing her whole attempt to sputter.

-I had practiced this so many times too.-

Harima got a little impatient, but kept it in check as he had never really realized how easy to hurt girls were. He didn't really want to hurt anyone, even though some times Princess sometimes drove him insane or got in his way, it was more that everything made sense now, and it was all much more broader than Harima had ever thought it could be.

"I was wondering if you could help me buy a present for a guy because I don't really know too much what guys like…" Eri started, but added on as she realized how Harima might see things. "It's actually for my father."

-Father's day is close enough for that lie to work isn't it? Do they even celebrate it in Japan?- Eri thought and Harima saw through her lie, but nodded anyways.

"It's not a problem if you can't. Oh, you will? Well good then. I'll meet you at the station on Saturday night, sixish."

Harima found himself doing nothing but nodding, seeing no other way out of the mess. Sighing to himself, Harima wondered exactly what he had gotten himself into.

'I could have sworn my strategy was to avoid Princess because she always caused misunderstandings between me and Tenma.' Harima thought to himself as he was once again tapped on the shoulder.

"That was really nice of you to say you would help Eri out."

It was none other than Tsukamoto Tenma.

At first Harima jumped for joy on the inside, but a dark realization caused him to yell loudly, and bolt from the classroom.

"I CAN'T HEAR TENMA'S THOUGHTS!!!" he exclaimed on the roof, before collapsing into self-pity.

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Thanks for reading, and I also wanted to say thanks to all my reviewers, but also that they should write some fics too, as I love writing as much as reading and this section really needs it! Thanks again! 


	4. It's Curry

Heh, between all my time spent drawing, reading and sleeping, I have little to no time to write, let alone fan fiction. But here it is, Harima is OOC, but that comes around to reason eventually.(I mean how else do I manage some quality fluff?) Enjoy, and thanks for the support!

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A lone, compacted figure sat on the roof, out of place. Harima, white as a ghost complete with lines across his being, convalesced from the shock he should have seen coming.

"You never hear the mortar that killed you…" Harima mused to himself as he drew imaginary lines on the roof's concrete slab that was in front of him. "Maybe I really should have seen this coming…"

Harima began thinking rationally for the first time in his life. For the few hours he spent on the roof, he came to many conclusions; one such conclusion was that he was going to be a little more mindful as to how he treats those who care about him. Much like when he started to understand animals, he now had the tools to help people, even if it was a little more personal.

Just as he was thinking about all these things, the two people most directly involved were watching him from the behind the door to the roof.

"Ah, Eri-sempai…" Yakumo said, who had arrived first, and had noticed Eri coming up the stairs.

"Huh? Why is Yakumo here?" Eri was startled as she had assumed no one would be up here.

"I had something to tell Harima-san, but I was told at the class that he had left in a panic." Yakumo had previously had yet another horrible encounter in class 2-C. Even without her powers, Hanai was far too overwhelming. "So I looked in all the usual spots…" Tea-club, gym, and now, the roof.

"Worried about him are you?" Eri asked in a masked accusing tone.

"Well, I had promised him that I would help him after school, and I wanted to be able to find him easily." Yakumo recognized the expression Eri had, and quickly tried to rectify any error. "Ah, well, it's not like that. Harima-san is Harima-san, that's it…"

Eri didn't quite huff, but more of a "hmm" in response before turning to leave.

"Don't forget to remind him about our plans for tomorrow." She said as she stopped after a few steps. The door to the roof had opened behind the girls and Harima Kenji stood on its threshold.

"Ummm…" Harima started. He hadn't expected on kicking his plan into action so soon, but none the less, he quickly turned around, messed around with his face quickly, and turned to face the girls, hair styled and clean shaven.

"Oh, hello girls." Harima said charmingly before walking down the stairs past a pair of stunned girls. 'I'll be good at that in no time…' Harima thought to himself as he strutted down the hallway with his hands in his pockets, secretly laughing at himself.

The two girls had remained in place for quite some time, their minds empty from the shock.

Eventually, Yakumo broke the silence with muffled laughter, the kind of laughter she hadn't felt in a long time, but still she tried her best to keep her image. Eri also laughed weirdly, the tense air between the two girls absolved.

"Hige sure is acting strange today." Eri pointed out, hands on hips, head to the side, but still smiling.

"Yes…" Yakumo agreed, now under control but still wearing a smile because she knew the reason he was like this, and felt touched. She contemplated telling Eri the reason Harima was in such a good mood, but after noticing the grin she wore, decided to just return to her classroom.

After school, Yakumo had decided to stop by the tea club to talk with Akira and Sarah briefly and tell them that she was leaving early today.

Imagine her surprise when instead, the club room was empty save for a lone Harima who was apparently slaving over the tea pot.

"Ah, Harima-san…" Yakumo said quietly before entering and taking a seat at the table.

It took Harima, who was putting all his focus into making tea, a rather long time before he noticed Yakumo, even though her thoughts whispered on constantly behind him.

"I wonder when Yakumo-chan is getting here…" Harima mused out loud as he turned around, finally now noticing not only Yakumo, but Akira who had snuck in behind her at some point, and Sarah, who had just entered.

"Err…" Harima struggled as the tray he carried only had two cups of tea on it. "I can make some more I guess…" he resigned quietly.

However, Sarah had blushingly refused and said she was heading out anyways, which she did after smiling at Yakumo. Akira however, said nothing, and practically gravitated from the room.

-It is as I suspected then…- the thought in her head as she left, leaving the only Harima and Yakumo again.

Yakumo watched them go and felt kind of left behind, but was somewhat grateful to be alone with Harima.

Joining Harima, who was just sitting down to try out the tea he had struggled to make, Yakumo tried to think of something to talk about, but only ended coming out with a nearly silent "thank you".

She was forgetting however, that her thoughts told the whole story, so saying something wasn't particularly necessary.

After waiting a minute or so for the tea to cool, after witnessing Harima make the mistake of not waiting, Yakumo tasted the tea.

Her tongue played through the levels of the tea; soothing, smooth, and with a bite on the end, but what was this texture. What was that? Bringing the cup to her nose, Yakumo smelt something very familiar.

"Umm Harima-san…" Yakumo started.

"Please, call me Kenji." Harima insisted from behind his teacup, his tone clean-cut and unthreatening.

"Ah, Kenji-kun…" Yakumo started yet again.

"How about just Kenji?" Harima said again, not having moved an inch from where he was before.

Yakumo couldn't even remember what she was talking about, but smiled behind her hand nonetheless. She took another sip from her cup before remembering what it was.

"Kenji, how did you put curry into this tea?" Yakumo asked, amazed.

Harima looked embarrassed for a second, but recovered. Yakumo waited for an answer while Harima sat there, thinking of one.

After a silence, Harima finally spoke with a straight face:

"I have absolutely no idea."

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Thanks for reading, the next one will be...eventually? Be sure to support the other active fics too! 


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